Thousands of tonnes of perfectly good high value fish are being thrown overboard by Cornwall fishermen and talks are happening this week to change that.

Fishing industry chiefs in Cornwall and Devon led by DEFRA minister and Camborne and Redruth MP George Eustice are in Brussels this week to discuss the dreaded and often hated fishing quotas.

The discussions and quota arrangements which will come out of the EU talks come as only this week several trawlers in Cornwall had to throw up to a tonne of sea bass each overboard.

The skipper and crew of a Cornish beam trawler throw back a day's over catch of monkfish with an estimated value of £1,000, outside Newlyn Harbour (Image: David Brenchley)

The fish is considered high value by the industry and a tonne of sea bass can often sell for £10,000, meaning Cornish boats and many others up and down the coast from Newlyn to Aberdeen have wasted tens of thousands of pounds in potential revenue.

"French fishermen don't want to throw away perfectly good sea bass any more than we do," Paul Trebilcock, chief executive of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, told Cornwall Live from Brussels.

"They agree with us that something has to change.

"For the next year at least, the UK is the fully fledged member of the European Union so we have to put Brexit aside and negotiate the best possible deal for the UK fishermen for 2018."

Mr Trebilcock believes junior Defra minister George Eustice understands the issues and recognises that it is "nonsense to waste a valuable resource like that" and will be fighting not just for Cornish fishermen, but for the UK fishing industry as a whole.

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He added: "For fishermen, any fish that goes back over the side is a waste of good fish and money. Sea bass is a by-catch of fishing. Fishermen don't go out to fish sea bass, but they still catch it accidentally.

"What we want to see is better provision for certain species and perhaps a higher percentage quota to stop the waste of good sea bass.

"We understand that there needs to be a sensible management of sea bass and other species but as it stands now it's not sensible.

"We want by-catch requirements that deal with sporadic catches. It is about having a coherent fishing policy in place that is good for fish stocks, good for the fishermen and good for the environment."

Even small sized fishing boats are subject to EU quotas on sea bass and other species

At present by-catch quotas mean fishermen have to throw away any sea bass that accounts for more than 3% of the total all fish on board their boats, even if the fish will likely die when pulled out of the water and will go back in the sea dead.

Mr Trebilcock said it is not just the larger trawlers, but the smaller 10-metre fishing boats coming out of Newlyn, Newquay or Looe which have to abide by the EU quota.

For many fishermen being able to land by-catch fish could mean extra money in their pockets and in the economy at large.

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The government says stocks of the fish are in long-term decline, but local fishermen believe there have been so many sea bass recently that catching them has been unavoidable.

Many fishing boat from the Newlyn fleet have had to throw fish like sea bass over board as part of quotas regulated by the EU (Image: Greg Martin)

A Defra spokesman said it was committed to striking a balance that allowed sustainable fishing as well as a thriving industry and is currently looking at scientific advice regarding sea bass levels for next year.

Mr Trebilcock added: "Not so long ago catching sea bass used to be welcomed by fishermen in the winter months because it would provide an extra income. But now it's just being wasted."

Scott Mann, MP for North Cornwall and Parliamentary Bass Champion, believes fishermen who go over their quota for by-catch species such as sea bass should be able to offset that against other quotas like mackerel or herring so they are not penalised and can land the fish which is then not wasted and thrown back into the sea.

Scott Mann, MP for North Cornwall, with a large sea bass. He is advocating changes to the current fishing quotas so by-catch sea bass is no longer thrown overboard and wasted (Image: Scott Mann)

Captain Jim Portus, chief executive officer of the South West Fish Producers organisation, said Mr Mann's proposal was one of the options which could be looked at, but will probably get better traction once the UK has left the EU in March 2019.

He said the aim of the talks in Brussels this week was to obtain the best deal and quotas for UK fishermen and make sure the DEFRA minister understood the industry's position.

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A spokesman for pro-Brexit Fishing for Leave said: "Quotas are a disaster economically, socially and operationally. They lead to increased mortality as vessels have to catch more fish to find what they are allowed to keep while the system is crippling the industry.

"If the EU was to make off with half our livestock and made us shoot half our cows and sheep to leave them dead at the side of the road there would be national uproar."

An EU Commission spokesman said discarding fish is wasteful and irresponsible, which is why the EU's reformed Common Fisheries Policy is putting an end to the practice.

He added: "We are phasing in a ban on all discards by 2019, while helping fishermen develop and upgrade fishing gear that can help them avoid catching undersized fish or unwanted by-catch."

A decision on fishing quotas is expected to be taken by all 28 EU fisheries ministers this Wednesday.